Along the way
by Sining
Summary: It wasn't planned, it wasn't expected. It just happened along the way.


Disclaimer: Tales of Symphonia and it's characters belong to Namco.  
  
She knows he is worried, she can see it in his every movement, can hear it in his every word. He does not smile or say anything except with the greatest of urgency in his voice, so unlike his usual self. He does not look at any of them, does not quite meet their eyes even when speaking.  
  
She can hardly blame him for being reserved now. Not when so much has happened. Mithos turning out to be a traitor as well as the leader of Cruxis. Altessa critically wounded, Tabatha...god, she didn't even know how diagnose her condition. And most shocking of all...Kratos the Betrayer, Kratos, one of the Four Seraphim, had turned out to be his father...the one who had killed his mother.  
  
So many things had happened and it left them slightly shell-shocked. It had to be even worse for him considering the circumstances regarding his father, and yet he had been one of the first to recover, rallying them into action by diverting their attention to treating Altessa.  
  
She was not an empathic person; years of guilt had made her retreat into herself, but she wonders how she can read him so well. Is it because they are so close in temperament or just because she spends so much more time looking at him than she has at any other person.  
  
She flies her Rheaird next to his and stares at his side-profile as she gathers up her courage to talk to him. "Lloyd," she begins and stops when he turns to stare at her.  
  
"Yes, Sheena?"  
  
"Aaah..." she hesitates slightly, unsure of how to continue. "Are you...okay?" She grimaces at the lameness of her question. When there is no answer but silence, she continues on in a rush. "Aaah, I mean it's okay if you don't want to talk right now, I mean I understand what you're g-" What he says next stops her nervous babbling.  
  
"Thanks, Sheena," he says simply and smiles at her, though his smile is slightly strained. But she doesn't notice nor care as she blushes and looks away from him to hide her embarrassment.  
  
"It's nothing...I was just worried that's all," she says, half-mumbling as she looks down, anywhere but him. "If you need anyone to talk to..." She is about to say more when she realises that he is bringing his Rheaird down for a descent and that they have nearly reached Flanoir.  
  
"We'll continue this conversation later, is that okay Sheena?" he says, his eyes no longer looking at her but intent on the snow city in front of them.  
  
"Okay." But she can not help but feel slightly disappointed.  
  
---  
  
She stares at his door. It is nothing more than a simple wooden door, fashioned like so many others but it seems something more. She feels a slight tinge of nervousness hit her as she raises her hand to knock and just as quickly drops it again. She wonders if she should disturb him and it surprises her that she should feel so nervous to talk to him. After all, wasn't that what she had stayed back in Flanoir for? In hopes that maybe they could continue their conversation from before, and perhaps...just perhaps sort out the feelings she had for him and maybe the feelings he had for her.  
  
Finally, she brings her up and knocks firmly on the door three times. There is silence for a moment and just when she is about to give up, a voice comes from within.  
  
"Who is it? Come on in."  
  
She walks in and notices that he is seated at the edge of his bed, the rumpled linen indicating that he had probably been lying on it just moments ago.  
  
"Hey," she says, managing a small smile which he returns. "Do you have a sec? It's snowing outside and it's really pretty." He stares at her, bemused and she gets flustered. "I mean, it's okay if you don't want to. I just thought that maybe you could use someone to talk to."  
  
"Sure," he says as he stands up, raking his hand through his hair to clear it from his eyes.  
  
---  
  
They walk along the streets of Flanoir as night falls about them. Every now and then, she sneaks a peek at him walking beside her. He seems strangely quiet but no longer moody.  
  
She opens her mouth to ask him how he is feeling-  
  
"Don't you think those two look so cute together?"  
  
-and promptly closes it, blushing brightly as she searches for the source of that comment. She notices two older ladies carrying grocery bags, looking at her and Lloyd.  
  
"Reminds me of me and my Dan back when we were younger."  
  
"The guy seems a bit oblivious though."  
  
She looks to the ground, mortified and resists the strange urge to shout out "It's not like that!". Her and Lloyd? Did they look like a couple? She supposes that it wasn't that unreasonable for them to assume that she and Lloyd were together. After all, they were walking the streets of Flanoir at night together, when most people were on their way home or had already returned home. It might even look like they were on a date together.  
  
She turns to look at Lloyd, to see if he had heard any of that.  
  
"You were right, it IS pretty," he says suddenly and turns to give her one of his carefree smiles.  
  
She is stunned for a while before she realises that he had used the word 'it' and thus wasn't referring to her. "Yeah, it is," she replies as she follows Lloyd to a terrace that has a beautiful view of the city of Flanoir. The falling snow only serves to accentuate the beauty of the cityscape in front of her.  
  
"The world looks so peaceful when you stand up here like this," she says. It feels like she and Lloyd are the only ones in the world, standing out here in the falling snow.  
  
"Yeah, it does. Even though up above us, Cruxis is busy planning it's Absurd Age of Lifeless beings," Lloyd says as he leans against the railing.  
  
She laughs at that. It seems that Lloyd has finally returned to normal, and it cheers her up to know that. "Lifeless beings..." she is silent for a while as she thinks. "Do...you think that discrimination would really go away if everyone became lifeless beings?"  
  
He shrugs. "I doubt it would."  
  
"Yeah...I guess..." she leans forward onto the railing, crossing her hands and using them to rest her upper body on as she stares off into the night. "I mean...I'm human but the people of Mizuho have always had a gap separating them from the rest of the people of Meltokio. And...even in Mizuho, I always stood out," she says as she turns her head back to look at Lloyd.  
  
He cocks his head to one side in interest and looks at her with those warm eyes of his. "Because you can summon spirits?" he asks.  
  
She nods. "The instant I made the pact with Corrine, people started looking at me differently. It was hard enough making friends back when I was only the Chief's adopted granddaughter... When they realised I could summon as well, people began keeping an even greater distance from me. That's...that's why I..." Her mind wanders back to one of the first conversations she had with Lloyd after she had joined their party. 'I wanted friends that were free from the villages influence,' she had said back then and Lloyd had simply smiled back at her and said 'Me too.'  
  
"Did you ever wish you were different?" his voice brings her back to the present.  
  
"I've lost count of all the times I wished it. Especially...since I caused the deaths of the people in my village." Part of her is screaming for her to stop. She has never told anyone this, has never opened up to anyone since that day. "But it's because of this power that I met Corrine-" 'And you," she thinks but she can not bring herself to say that out, not now, so she settles for the next best thing she can."-and all of you."  
  
"If it wasn't for your summons, we wouldn't have been able to make it this far at all," he says with all honesty.  
  
"When I think about it that way...it seems like everything a person has is important in some way. When I started thinking that way...it felt like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders. To know that it was okay just to be alive."  
  
"Well, yeah, that's a given isn't it?"  
  
She shakes her head, giving a short bitter laugh. "Not for me it wasn't. I failed in my duties and ran from making pacts. I always thought of myself as a burden." She turns to look at him. "But after seeing you say exactly what you mean time and time again, despite all the odds against you... I started to think that maybe it was okay for me to just...be myself."  
  
"...I don't quite get it, but I think that's a compliment."  
  
"It is," she says, giving him a small smile and watching him beam back at her. "So..." she says as she looks away from him, tapping the index finger of her right hand to her cheek in nervousness, "What are you going to do now?"  
  
"About Cruxis?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"...I can't see the situation improving by allowing Cruxis to go about their merry way. I'm going to fight Mithos for the sake of creating a world where everyone can live their lives the way they want to. Once the others return, we'll set off for the Tower of Salvation and head to where Mithos is," he says determinedly, raising one hand and clenching it tightly.  
  
"I agree. I don't like just sitting around and waiting to see what happens."  
  
A comfortable silence settles over them as the two of them stare off into the distance.  
  
"Hey, Sheena?"  
  
"Yes, Lloyd?"  
  
"You're important," he says simply, his gaze still far off.  
  
She stifles the urge to cry. "Thank you," she whispers.  
  
END  
  
OMAKE!!  
  
To anyone who's ever seen the real Sheena X Lloyd scene in Flanoir, this is how I was expecting it to end during those last few lines.  
  
"Right? You and I think a lot alike, Sheena! I think we could become great friends," Lloyd said, as he turned to smile at Sheena.  
  
"...Great...friends..." Sheena's left eye began twitching. "LLOYD NO BAKA!!"  
  
"Huh? Hey, What?!?"  
  
KAPOW, CRACK, ZAP, SMACK, ZZZZZZT!!  
  
Sheena huffed, dismissed her summons and stormed off, leaving the electrified/frozen/grilled/beamed Lloyd lying on the ground moaning in pain.  
  
"What did I do?" Lloyd groaned.  
  
END  
  
Authors Notes: For those who have made it this far, this story was based off Sheena and Lloyd's actual scene in Flanoir and Heimdall. Took me a few days to write this, and I posted my updates on the GameFaqs Tales of Symphonia Board everytime I had an actual update. I'm also a firm believer that Sheena and Lloyd are the BEST couple in the entire game --. But then I've seen their scenes. 


End file.
